Feb 6, 2023 07:27 PM
https://www.sciencealert.com/alarming-sp...s-infected
EXCERPTS: Experts have warned that the recent detection of bird flu in mammals including foxes, otters, minks, seals, and even grizzly bears is concerning but emphasized that the virus would have to significantly mutate to spread between humans.
Since late 2021, Europe has been gripped by its worst-ever outbreak of bird flu, with North and South America also experiencing severe outbreaks. This has led to the culling of tens of millions of domestic poultry worldwide, many with the H5N1 strain. The global outbreak is also responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of wild birds.
Tom Peacock, a virologist at the Imperial College London, told AFP that it constitutes a "panzootic" – a pandemic among animals, in this case birds.
"We are not fully sure why it's happening now but we think this might be driven by a slightly different strain of H5N1 which is spreading very effectively in wild, migratory birds," Peacock said.
It is rare that bird flu jumps over into mammals – and rarer still that humans catch the potentially deadly virus.
[...] David Heymann, an infectious disease specialist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, urged caution. More bird flu cases could be being detected in mammals because countries have ramped up testing, he said.
"This may have been going on for years and nothing has really occurred," he told AFP. But it was always concerning when a flu virus enters mammals "because they're often the mixing point of influenza viruses, or they create an environment where mutations can occur and then can become adapted in humans", he added.
Even if that did occur, he said there were excellent surveillance systems in Europe and North America, and that H5N1 has been heavily researched since it first emerged in China and Hong Kong in 1996... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Experts have warned that the recent detection of bird flu in mammals including foxes, otters, minks, seals, and even grizzly bears is concerning but emphasized that the virus would have to significantly mutate to spread between humans.
Since late 2021, Europe has been gripped by its worst-ever outbreak of bird flu, with North and South America also experiencing severe outbreaks. This has led to the culling of tens of millions of domestic poultry worldwide, many with the H5N1 strain. The global outbreak is also responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of wild birds.
Tom Peacock, a virologist at the Imperial College London, told AFP that it constitutes a "panzootic" – a pandemic among animals, in this case birds.
"We are not fully sure why it's happening now but we think this might be driven by a slightly different strain of H5N1 which is spreading very effectively in wild, migratory birds," Peacock said.
It is rare that bird flu jumps over into mammals – and rarer still that humans catch the potentially deadly virus.
[...] David Heymann, an infectious disease specialist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, urged caution. More bird flu cases could be being detected in mammals because countries have ramped up testing, he said.
"This may have been going on for years and nothing has really occurred," he told AFP. But it was always concerning when a flu virus enters mammals "because they're often the mixing point of influenza viruses, or they create an environment where mutations can occur and then can become adapted in humans", he added.
Even if that did occur, he said there were excellent surveillance systems in Europe and North America, and that H5N1 has been heavily researched since it first emerged in China and Hong Kong in 1996... (MORE - missing details)